I made salmon with a horseradish topping today.

[conuly]

This was great. I like salmon just fine, but...

You know, it's almost a stereotype that autistics avoid strongly flavored foods and only like bland, safe tastes and textures. This is probably because the kid who subsists on mashed potatoes and sauceless pasta worries his parents more than the grown-up (or kid!) who eats just about anything.

However, differences in sensory processing go in all directions, and I have the opposite set-up. I love and crave strong flavors!

So to me, I love lox (eaten with lots of onions!), but plain salmon is... well, it's a mild fish. And it tastes all right, but mostly what I taste is just that it's very rich. I can only take so much of that!

The nieces LOVE salmon. At $10 a pound, they damn well better! I don't buy it very often at that price! A pound of salmon is just not as much as you might think, and they could polish that off easily between the two of them.

They didn't like the horseradish topping very much, but it was easy for them to scrape off. I think, in fact, I may have found the perfect salmon dish for us - a strong topping for me, and mild salmon for them! Except that it's going to be a while before I make it again at that price. What am I going to do to use up the rest of the jar of horseradish?

Comments

[redbird]

Horseradish goes well (all by itself) on cold roast beef; conventionally this is done as a sandwich, but I've also enjoyed plain leftover roast beef with some horseradish smeared on top. cattitude makes a horseradish, grated apple, and sour cream topping for fish, which can go well on mild-flavored fish, but by the time the apple and sour cream are mixed in, the horseradish isn't as strong.

Also, horseradish keeps a good long while in the fridge.

[conuly]

Being a brassica and a root vegetable as well, I expect it to keep a while! But it's a small fridge, is the problem.

Never had roast beef, I don't think.... (It's not unknown in the US or in NYC, it's just not how I cook nor how my parents cooked as far as I can recall.)

[janewilliams20]

Horseradish goes well with smoked mackerel, if you use that at all?

Also, horseradish mash. Yum.

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

I occasionally like something strong, but i like certain textures and subtle flavors best. My favorite foods are shellfish (PLAIN, please), rainbow trout (very mild flavor but distinct to my tastebuds), fruit-based goodies, mushrooms, and mildly-sweet desserts.

But i also love olives and the occasional hot sauce or mustard. I LOVE pumpkin pie, but it needs some ginger and nutmeg bite to it or it's just no good. I also love oysters, but they're so rich i only want a few every year or two. If i go to Arby's, i like to combine their sauces, adding in a little bit of horseradish.

I hate onions mostly because they're specifically onions - the taste is nasty (even in subtle amounts - it really has to be thoroughly unrecognizable), and the texture is vile.

I like parsley in small amounts, but i get overwhelmed by it easily. Cilantro is evil - it's like a bad combination of parsley and onion.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Horseradish mashed potatoes. Horseradish and roast beef. Horseradish on bread and butter (never tried it, but it sounds good and it's from one of my recipe books).

(Ten dollars a pound? Wow, and that's probably farmed, isn't it? I never pay more than six a pound for salmon, and furthermore I insist it be wild-caught. If they're going to smoke it for me, that changes the pricing, but if it were alder hotsmoked you wouldn't need any horseradish. ...damn, now I'm hungry.)

[conuly]

I could get it cheaper per pound if I bought the whole fish, but I don't want the whole fish, and I'd have to pay more, in the end, because I'd be buying well more than twice as much fish as we could eat.

[conuly]

No use asking me to cook for you, I chop so many onions daily I stink of them all evening long. And I adore cilantro.

But I suppose we can agree on our shared love of flavorful pumpkin pie. Mmm!

[conuly]

Also, I probably could find a cheaper source for it, but I rarely ever make fish in the first place. I'm still getting used to the concept of cooking... fish! So I mostly just go to my supermarket rather than shopping around.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Cilantro tastes soapy to me. Oysters are just disgusting; I've had them every way known to man (fried, grilled, broiled, stewed, Creoled, and raw) and they're all oysters and to hell with them. (The more for you, right?)

I like sharp cheeses, but some seem to have a bitter component in the back of my throat (Brie especially). Pumpkin pie without spices is no damn good--it's all about the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I don't like bland sweets either--some tart to set off the sweet, or something. (Dark chocolate, not milk, etc.)

I'm funny about texture--I like some kinds of crunch, but not others.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Seconding horseradish mash. Could also try one of my favorites (whcih i think miss strong flavours will like)
Rant's el cheapo beef stew.
Cheap wine, cheap beef, garlic, potato, onions and a half jar of horseradish. Top with fresh greens (i like baby spinich and cos, but anythign strong and crunchy will do)

[conuly]

I don't like oysters much myself, but clams? Shrimp? Mmmm!

[conuly]

Cos = iceberg lettuce? *googles*

Oh! Romaine! (Dialect is a killer in cooking. At least we have google!)

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Romaine? well if its long leafed, fluffy green that's of the lettuce variety, then yes. Casue of living in carlton (which is little italy) it costs abotu half of iceberg, and tastes better

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i'm the same way about weird combinations of "i like this but not this." I was contemplating it a minute ago, even in regaurds to noise and music. One of my most hated elements of modern pop/hip-hop is repetitive lyrics, but some of my most favorite music is even MORE repetitive, even 11 minutes worth. I love concerts, but the slightest noise from a small child will send me into a sensory rage...all bets are off when the child gets louder and i have to plug ears and get away.

Onions and celery have a wet-crispy-crunchy EWW factor, but cabbage is similar in texture and i LOVE the stuff. I love my sister-in-law's deviled eggs, and i have to remind myself that the icky-crunchy-textured bits are relish that gives it a bit of necessary flavor.

I like the milder cheeses. I go hogwild over mozzarella and Monterey Jack. My favorite though is a certain mildly spicy white cheese that's served at my favorite Mexican restaurant - and they have the only salsa i really like - it's pureed and no cilantro (i like salsa in general sometimes, but it MUST NOT have cilantro, and somehow small onions are tolerable).

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

Love 'em all, but cheap clams are too tough and chewy for me, and usually those are *yucky* fried anyway. Grilled or steamed, please. :-9

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

I'd love to visit you sometime, but it may end up having to be on neutral territory, and not in your home, hehe.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

While I am definitely not a fan of "hot" spiced foods, I too find that salmon on its own is just too bland. I have dozens of salmon recipes for all sorts of sauces and coatings to liven it up. Fortunately for me, salmon isn't terribly expensive here on the coast, plus John pays part of the cost whenever I make it for him.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Definitely a stereotype. sethrenn like curry. So do a fair number of us. Their problem is textures, not intensity.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

That sounds good... Got a more detailed recipe? (I don't cook enough to just go from ingredients and "it's a stew".)

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

This un is easy.
ingredients are presented in proportions

Handfull of beef
Half an onion per handfull o beef.
One big potato per handfull o beef
One cup o stock per handfull of beef
Half a cup of wine per handfull o beef
at least a cup of water per handfull o beef (this requires experimenting to get right for you)
Horseraddish or wasabi

get big ass pot

Chop up ALL THE THINGS

Put the heat onto high.
Brown beef chunks and onions in bottom of pot.

Poor in wine and water. this deglazes the pot and gets all that lovely flavour up.

Put in the stock and the potato and the horseraddish. If you;er feeling extravigant, pine nuts can go in here

Bring to boil.

Simmer untill you;re ready. Some people like their stew thing but chunk, so say an hour, other people (like me) want their stew thick and with smaller bits.
We simmer ours for about twice that, sometimes longer.
So long as you stir it every 5 or 10 minutes, it wont stick . If you want to thicken it, use some cornflour towards the end. Put in a spoonful, stir like crazy for a minute, check consistency, repeat if required.

Ladle into bowls, garnish with the greens of your choice. You might want some crusty bread to dip in the sauce. Good cheap meal, comes out to about 5 bucks Australian a serve. When i make this i tend to go with chuck beef, gravy beef or osso busco The nice thign is, unless you forget to stir it an burn it, its hard to muck up. Ifi ts under done, cook it more. If its over done and too thick for your liking, thin it out with a little more water and wine.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Huh, I'd never thought of putting pine nuts in a stew - sounds interesting. Thankies!! (Also, love the repetition on "per handfull o beef". :-P)

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

measurements change. A handfull is a handfull tho.

[conuly]

Well, food doesn't have to be hot to be flavorful, but I LOVE spicy hot foods. (Though I don't care if it's heated up first or not, something which consternates my mother no end.)

My mother used to like teasing me about the fact that I eat super hot salsa. "Your face gets all red!" I never yet have bothered explaining to her that my face getting red is barely the half of it, it's not hot enough until my glasses fog up.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I would buy an entire book of recipes written in this style. ESPECIALLY if they're full of flavor!